Method and system for providing telecommunication subscriber services without provisioning or maintenance

ABSTRACT

An intelligent router takes the place of a conventional SCCP relay in a wireless network. The intelligent router automatically provisions and updates subscriber information in a network file.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to, and is a continuation of, U.S.application Ser. No. 10/174,276, filed Jun. 18, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No.7,881,308, titled “Method And System For Providing TelecommunicationSubscriber Services Without Provisioning Or Maintenance,” incorporatedherein by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a system for providingtelecommunication services. More particularly, the present inventionrelates to a method and system for providing telecommunicationsubscriber routing services without provisioning or maintenance ofsubscriber routing information. Still more particularly, the inventionrelates to an intelligent router that provisions and updates a dialablenumber-to-home location register address translation file without humanintervention.

2. Background Information

The present disclosure generally applies to wireless networks and, moreparticularly, to cellular telephone systems. One such system is referredto as the Global System for Mobile Communications (“GSM”) which began inEurope and is now available, and growing, in the United States. Althoughthe following discussions is provided in the context of GSM, it shouldbe understood that the disclosure and the claims which follow should notbe limited to GSM, unless otherwise specified.

A traditional GSM implementation is show in FIG. 1. A conventionaltelephone system 10 is shown as PSTN which stands for “Public SwitchedTelephone Network.” The PSTN refers to the international telephonesystem. An exemplary telephone 12 is shown attached to, or part of, thePSTN 10. The GSM system shown in FIG. 1 also includes one or moreswitches 14 and 16. The switches generally communicate with the varioussubscribers and their cellular telephones, for example cell phone 18.The cell phones are generically referred to as mobile stations (“MS”).It should be understood that the MSs typically do not communicatedirectly with the switches, but instead communicate with cell towerswhich relay transmissions between the MSs and the switches. The celltowers have been omitted from FIG. 1 for sake of clarity.

Two numbers are associated with each MS 18. One number is the uniquedialable, publicly known number (e.g., 123-456-7890) and is alsoreferred to as the mobile subscriber integrated services digital network(“MSISDN”). The other number is also unique to the MS, but isnon-dialable and is generally not known to the public and even the ownerof the MS itself. This latter number is referred to as the internationalmobile subscriber identifier (“IMSI”) number and identifies the MSdevice to the network. That is, the GSM network generally refers to eachMS by its non-dialable IMSI number, and not its dialable MSISDN number.

The network in FIG. 1 also includes a home location register (“HLR”) 20.The HLR is a database that contains semipermanent mobile subscriberinformation for a wireless carrier's entire subscriber base. Theinformation in the HLR for each subscriber includes the subscriber'sIMSI and MSISDN numbers, service subscription information, locationinformation, service restrictions and supplementary servicesinformation. The service subscription information specifies the featureswhich the subscriber has in his or her subscription (e.g., call waiting,call forwarding, etc.).

The location information specifies the current location of thesubscriber's MS 18. It is desirable for MSs 18 to have one dialableMSISDN number, although more than one is allowed, that can be dialed byanyone regardless of the current location of the MS. The GSM networkprovides this benefit. A subscriber turns on his or her MS 18 toregister the device with the network. Information is passed between theMS 18 and the nearest switch that enables the switch to determine thatan MS with a particular IMSI number is in that switch's coverage area.Location information pertaining to that MS is provided to the HLR 20 andthe subscriber's HLR information is updated to reflect the currentlocation of the subscriber's MS. Then, when another person dials thesubscriber's MSIDN number (e.g., 123-456-7890), the home switch (i.e.,the switch corresponding to the MSISDN's area code) contacts the HLR 20and provides the called MSISDN number to the HLR. The Ella 20 maps theMSISDN number to the subscriber's non-dialable IMSI number and providesthe subscriber MS's current location information to the switch at whichthe call originated. That switch then uses the location information tocomplete the call between the caller and the subscriber's MS.

As a GSM wireless carrier's subscriber base grows, it will eventuallybecome necessary to add additional HLRs to the network. This requirementmight be prompted by a service subscription record storage capacityissue, or perhaps a message processing performance issue. Also, it mightbe prompted by a need to increase the overall network reliability.

The traditional GSM embodiment shown in FIG. 1 works well until morethan one HLR is included in the network. With multiple HLRs, additionallogic is needed to determine which HLR corresponds to a given subscriberso that the subscriber's current location can be determined. Referringnow to FIG. 2, another conventional embodiment of a GSM network is shownin which multiple HLRs are provided. Each HLR has a unique address whichthe system uses for communication with the HLRs. Each HLR 20 stores thelocation information discussed above for a plurality of subscribers. Tocomplete a call to an MS 18, it must be determined or known which HLRcontains the necessary location information regarding the targetsubscriber. To that end, the GSM configuration of FIG. 2 also includes asignaling connection control part (“SCCP”) relay 30. The SCCP relay 30includes MSISDN-to-HLR address translations. The function performed bythe SCCP relay is to translate a subscriber's MSIDN number to an HLRaddress containing the information pertaining to that subscriber so thatthe subscriber's location information can be retrieved to complete thecall as described above.

The SCCP relay 30 is generally a database containing the MSISDN-to-HLRaddress translations. Currently, this database is maintained and editedmanually. That is, human intervention is required to enter newsubscribers to the SCCP relay 30 (referred to as “provisioning”), aswell as to change existing information (e.g., translations) contained inthe relay. This process which requires human beings to continuallyupdate the SCCP relay database generally is satisfactory, but does haveits disadvantages such as data entry errors that may occur due to humanintervention, as well as the daily maintenance costs associated with thehuman intervention. Failure to maintain the accuracy of such informationcan translate into lost revenue due to the failure to locate and connectcalls to subscribers that are not current between the HLRs and the SCCPrelays. Accordingly, an improved mechanism is needed to address theseconcerns.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The problems noted above are solved in large part by an intelligentrouter that takes the place of the SCCP relay described above. Whereasthe SCCP relay's translation information was manually provisioned andupdated, in accordance with the preferred embodiment, the intelligentrouter automatically provisions and updates a translation file withouthuman involvement.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a router includes amicroprocessor and a mass storage device coupled to the microprocessor.The mass storage device contains both a network entity file and arouting translation file. The network entity file contains addresses ofentities accessible to the router and the translation file is used tostore translations from a mobile station dialable number to an addressof one of the entities. Upon receiving information regarding a call to asubscriber for which a translation is not present in the translationtable, the microprocessor automatically (i.e., without humanintervention) updates the translation table to provide a translation forthe subscriber.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a wireless networkprovides telecommunication service to a plurality of mobile stations.The network comprises a first router, a plurality of second routerscoupled to the first router and a plurality of network entities coupledto the second routers. The first router has access to a network entityfile and a routing translation file. The network entity file containsaddresses of the second routers and the translation file is used tostore translations from a mobile station dialable number to an addressof one of the network entities which contains location informationpertaining to the mobile station. Further, upon receiving informationregarding a call to a subscriber for which a translation is not presentin the translation table, the first router automatically updates,without human intervention, the translation table to provide atranslation for the subscriber.

By automatically updating the translation information, the potential fordata entry errors are eliminated and a more robust, less costly networkis provided. These and other advantages will become apparent uponreviewing the following disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a detailed description of the preferred embodiments of theinvention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 shows a conventional wireless network having a single homelocation register (“HLR”);

FIG. 2 shows a conventional wireless network having multiple HLRs;

FIG. 3 shows a preferred embodiment of a wireless networking includingan intelligent router which automatically updates routing translationinformation;

FIG. 4 shows another aspect of the use of the network configuration ofFIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 shows an alternative embodiment which includes a plurality ofintelligent routers.

NOTATION AND NOMENCLATURE

Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claimsto refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art willappreciate, computer companies may refer to a component andsub-components by different names. This document does not intend todistinguish between components that differ in name but not function. Inthe following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and“comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should beinterpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . ”. Also, theterm “couple” or “couples” is intended to mean either a direct orindirect electrical connection. Thus, if a first device couples to asecond device, that connection may be through a direct electricalconnection, or through an indirect electrical connection via otherdevices and connections. To the extent that any term is not speciallydefined in this specification, the intent is that the term is to begiven its plain and ordinary meaning.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, anintelligent router is provided in place of the SCCP relay describedabove. The SCCP relay was manually updated. The intelligent routerdescribed above creates and updates its routing informationautomatically (i.e., without human intervention).

Referring now to FIG. 3, a wireless network (e.g., GSM) includes one ormore switches 14, multiple HLRs 20 and an intelligent router 50 coupledto a conventional telephone system 10 (“PSTN”). The intelligent router50 has access to at least two files 52 and 54. File 52 contains anMSISDN-to-address translation entry for each provisioned subscriber inthe network. Each entry includes the subscriber's dialable MSISDN numberand the address of the HLR corresponding to that subscriber. Whereasthis type of information had to be manually created and updated in theSCCP relays of conventional wireless networks, file 52 is updatedautomatically by the intelligent router 50 in the embodiment shown inFIG. 3. File 54 is the network entity file (“NEF”) and preferablyincludes the address of each HLR 20 or other routable entity in thenetwork. In the exemplary network configuration of FIG. 1, three HLRsare shown—HLR 20 a, 20 b, and 20 c. These three HLRs have addresses 001,002, and 003, respectively. The HLR addresses 001, 002, and 003 arestored in the NEF file 54 as shown.

When a person first subscribes to the wireless service, the intelligentrouter is unaware of that subscriber. More particularly, theMSISDN-to-address translation file 52 does not have an entrycorresponding to that subscriber. In conventional networks, a humanbeing would have to manually create an entry for the subscriber in theSCCP relay and enter the HLR address corresponding to that subscriber'sMSISDN. In the preferred embodiment of FIG. 3, the MSISDN-to-addresstranslation entry for the new subscriber is created automatically asdescribed above.

The process of creating a new MSISDN-to-address translation entry infile 52 and then using that information is depicted in FIG. 1 via aseries of messages labeled as 60-68. FIG. 3 depicts how a subscriberbecomes provisioned in the file 52 for the first time. Initially,someone calls the new, non-provisioned subscriber's dialable MSISDNnumber (e.g., 123-456-7890). As a result, the switch 14 transmits a sendrouting information (“SRI”) request message 60 to the intelligent router50. The SRI request message is a well known message construct inaccordance with the GSM standard and generally includes the targetMSISDN number and requests location information pertaining to the targetsubscriber in return. Next, the intelligent router 50 determines whetherits MSISDN-to-address translation file 52 includes an entrycorresponding to the MSISDN number in the SRI message 60 by querying itsfile 52 (step 62). In the current example, the MSISDN-to-addresstranslation file 52 will not have an entry for the target MSISDN number.The result of the file 52 query informs the intelligent router that thedesired information is not present in the file and thus the intelligentrouter will have to determine which HLR 20 contains the locationpertaining to the target subscriber.

Referring still to FIG. 3, the intelligent router 50 next accesses theNEF file 54 in step 63 to ascertain the addresses of the HLRs 20 inwhich the requested location information could be stored. Armed with theHLR addresses, the intelligent router 50 forwards the SRI message,containing the target MSISDN number, to each of the HLRs 20 a-20 c (step64). Each HLR 20 a-20 c responds with an indication as to whether itcontains the target subscriber. Assuming that HLRs 20 a and 20 b do notcontain information regarding the desired subscriber, but HLR 20 c doescontain the desired information, HLRs 20 a and 20 b preferably respond(step 65) with a suitable error message indicating a failure to find thedesired subscriber in those HLRs. HLR 20 c, however, responds (step 66)with a send routing information ACK message which is a well-known GSMmessage construct. The send routing information ACK message includes thelocation of the switch 14 to which the subscriber is currentlyregistered and any other desired information such as restrictioninformation.

The intelligent router 50 preferably receives the send routinginformation ACK message and, in step 67, updates its MSISDN-to-addresstranslation file 52 to include an entry for the subscriber. The newlyadded entry will include the MSISDN pertaining to that subscriber alongwith the address of the subscriber's HLR 20. This address can be eitherthe IMSI associated with the MSISDN or as described in the exampledescribed herein with regard to FIG. 3, the address is 003 correspondingto HLR 20 c. Finally, in step 68, the desired location information isprovided back to the originating switch 14 which then completes thecall.

The process described with respect to FIG. 3 results in the intelligentrouter 50 automatically creating an entry for all new subscribers oncethe first call to that new, but non-provisioned in the intelligentrouter 50, subscriber is made. From that point on, the intelligentrouter has access to the HLR address for that subscriber in its file 52so that the query and response steps 64-66 are not necessary, unless thesubscriber is migrated to another HLR, which will then automaticallytrigger the query steps again.

FIG. 4 illustrates the process using the intelligent router 50 when acall is placed to a subscriber that has already been provisioned in theMSISDN-to-address translation file 52 in accordance with automaticprocess described above. The switch 14 sends a send routing informationmessage 71 to the intelligent router 50. The intelligent router in step72 queries its file 52 to determine if the subscriber is present in thefile. That being the case in the example of FIG. 4, the intelligentrouter will then access the subscriber's HLR address from the file 52and, in step 73, forwards the send routing information request to thecorrect HLR (in this case HLR 20 c). That HLR retrieves the desiredinformation and provides a send routing information return resultmessage 74 back to the originating switch 14. The dashed line 56connecting the NEF file 54 to the intelligent router 50 indicates thethat NEF file 54 is not queried in this process. A second configurablealternative is to allow all SRI ACKs to pass back through theIntelligent Router to provide real time clean up routines, if determinednecessary.

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the invention whichincludes a plurality of intelligent routers. FIG. 5 shows threeintelligent routers 50 a, 50 b and 50 c. Each intelligent router 50 a-50c may couple to one or more HLRs as well as another intelligent routeras desired. As shown in FIG. 5, intelligent router 50 a couples to HLR20 g as well as intelligent routers 50 b and 50 c. Intelligent router 50b couples to HLRs 20 a-20 c, while intelligent router 50 c couples toHLRs 20 d-20 f. The HLRs 20 a-20 g have address 001-007, respectively.The multiple intelligent router configuration shown in FIG. 5 isexemplary only of the many ways in which multiple intelligent routerscan be configured, and all such configurations should be consideredwithin the scope of this disclosure.

The NEF file 54 a is accessible by intelligent router 50 a. Similar NEFfiles 54 b and 54 c are made accessible to intelligent routers 50 b and50 c, respectively. The NEF file 54 a includes address for all of thenetwork entities to which intelligent router 50 a has access, namely,intelligent router 50 b, intelligent router 50 c and HLR address 007.NEF files 54 b and 54 c include addresses for their associated networkentities, namely HLRs 20 a-20 c (NEF 54 b) and 20 d-20 g (NEF 54 c).

Any send routing information messages provided to intelligent router 50a are routed either directly to HLR 20 g if NEF file 54 a indicatesthat's where the target subscriber is located, or else to intelligentrouters 50 b and 50 c. Intelligent routers 50 b, 50 c further forwardthe message on to their subsidiary HLRs in accordance with theirrespective NEF files 54 b, 54 c. Response information is percolated backthrough the network to the intelligent router 50 a and to theoriginating switch 14, in a manner similar to that described above.Identical query capabilities can occur between each of the Intelligentrouters, which allows for each IR to play a priming role. Eachintelligent router may have its own MSISDN-to-address translation file52, as described above, or only the primary intelligent router 50 a mayhave a translation file 52.

An additional feature of the preferred embodiments includes a mechanismwhereby the translation files 52 are automatically cleaned up. This canoccur in a configurable pacing, batch mode whereby the network takeseach entry in the translation file 52 and queries the HLR associatedwith that entry to verify that the translation entry is still accurate.This will permit translation file entries to be deleted automatically assubscribers are removed by the carrier or as a subscriber's location andservice information is relocated from one HLR to another. This clean-uproutine can occur at any desired time and in any desired mode.Preferably, the clean-up routine occurs at night or on weekends whennetwork traffic is reduced. Also, the clean-up routine preferably runsin a background mode to permit the network to remain up and runningwhile the translation file is being verified and updated.

A Table Initializer is also identified as a subcomponent of thisinvention to provide initial population of MSISDNs to avoid aperformance degradation factor that could occur if the IntelligentRouter is installed in an existing network and activated for the firsttime. The Initializer will accept as input information pertaining toMSISDNs and their current addresses.

The intelligent router 50 above can be any suitable electronic devicethat performs the functions described above. For example, the router 50may generally comprise a computer containing one or moremicroprocessors, memory, mass storage devices and communication portsfor communication with other equipment as shown in FIGS. 3-5. Thetranslation files 52 and NEF files 54 may be stored in a mass storagedevice included as part of the router 50 or in a separate device towhich the router has access.

The preferred embodiments of the invention described herein provide amechanism whereby network entities are queried for the presence ofdesired location information of a desired MS rather than a centralizedfile having to be manually updated as in conventional systems.Accordingly, the preferred approach advantageously provides a mechanismwhereby the MSISDN to HLR address translations are automatically createdwithout human intervention and the problems associated therewith. Thisprovides increased data integrity and a lower cost of ownership.

The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the principles andvarious embodiments of the present invention. Numerous variations andmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once theabove disclosure is fully appreciated. For example, although a GSMimplementation has been shown and discussed, the above description andclaims which follow are intended to encompass the principle ofautomatically updating and provisioning routing information in a networkby, when necessary, querying the network entities for the presence ofthe relevant information. This disclosure and claims should not belimited to any particular embodiment, such as GSM, ANSI, ITU or IETF.Further, the particular implementations shown in the figures may bemodified in a number of different ways without departing from theprinciples and scope of this disclosure. Components can be added orremoved from the circuits and different circuits altogether that providethe same benefits and functionality can be used. It is intended that thefollowing claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations andmodifications.

1. A router configured for use in a wireless network providingtelecommunication services to mobile stations operated by subscribers tosaid telecommunication services, said router comprising: amicroprocessor; and a mass storage device coupled to saidmicroprocessor, said mass storage device containing a network entityfile and a routing translation file, said network entity file containsaddresses of entities accessible to said router and said translationfile is used to store translations from a mobile switching equipmentdialable number associated with subscriber's mobile station to anaddress of one of said entities; wherein, upon receiving informationregarding a call to a subscriber for which a translation is not presentin the translation table, said microprocessor automatically updates,without human intervention, said translation table to provide atranslation for the subscriber; and wherein said router implements abatch mode whereby, for each entry in the routing translation file, thenetwork entity associated with that entry is queried to verify accuracyof that entry's translation.
 2. The router of claim 1 wherein saidmicroprocessor accesses said network entity file to retrieve saidaddresses and broadcasts a message to said entities to determine whichentity contains location information pertaining to said subscriber. 3.The router of claim 2 wherein said router receives a response from theentity to which said message was broadcast that contains said locationinformation pertaining to said subscriber and said microprocessor storesa translation in said translation file, said translation includes theaddress of the entity containing the location information.
 4. The routerof claim 2 wherein said message comprises a send routing informationmessage.
 5. The router of claim 3 wherein said response comprises a sendrouting information return request message.
 6. The router of claim 1wherein said entities comprise home location registers, each registercontaining a plurality of entries, one or more entries per subscriber,and each entry including location information pertaining to asubscriber, said location information indicating a network switch towhich the subscriber is currently registered.
 7. A method of managingrouting information in a wireless network, comprising: (a) receiving arequest for routing information for a subscriber's mobile Switchingequipment (“MS”); (b) determining whether a translation exists in atranslation file for the MS, the translation translating a dialablenumber associated with the MS to a network entity containingtranslations of dialable numbers to non-dialable numbers to the MS's aswell as location information as to the MS's current location; and (c) ifno translation currently exists in the translation file, sendingmessages to a plurality of network entities to determine which of theentities contains the desired current location information for the MS;and (d) performing a batch mode whereby, for each translation in thetranslation file, a corresponding network entity is queried to verifyaccuracy of that entry's translation.
 8. The method of claim 7 whereinthe network entities comprise home location registers.
 9. The method ofclaim 7 further receiving a message from the network entity whichcontains the desired current location information for the MS.
 10. Themethod of claim 9 further including updating the translation file toinclude a translation for the MS.
 11. The method of claim 7 wherein (c)includes retrieving addresses corresponding to the plurality of networkentities before sending the messages.
 12. The method of claim 7 whereinsaid network entities in (c) include at least one home location registerand at least one router.
 13. A wireless network providingtelecommunication service to a plurality of mobile switching equipment,comprising: a first router; a plurality of second routers coupled tosaid first router; and a plurality of network entities coupled to saidsecond routers; wherein the first router has access to a network entityfile and a routing translation file, said network entity file containsaddresses of said second routers and said translation file is used tostore translations from a mobile switching equipment dialable number toan address of one of said network entities which contains locationinformation pertaining to the mobile switching equipment, at least onenetwork entity also comprising translations from dialable numbersassociated with a mobile station to a non-dialable number associatedwith said mobile station; and further wherein, upon receivinginformation regarding a call to a subscriber for which a translation isnot present in the translation table, said first router automaticallyupdates, without human intervention, said translation table to provide atranslation for the subscriber; and wherein at least one of routersperforms a batch mode in which, for each entry in the routingtranslation file, a corresponding network entity is queried to verifyaccuracy of that entry's translation.
 14. The network of claim 13wherein said first router accesses said network entity file to retrievesaid addresses and broadcasts a message to said second routers todetermine which of said second routers can provide the locationinformation pertaining to said subscriber.
 15. The network of claim 14wherein said first router receives a response from the second routerthat can provide the location information pertaining to said subscriberand said first router stores a translation in the translation file, thetranslation includes the address of the network entity containing thelocation information.
 16. The network of claim 14 wherein said messagecomprises a send routing information message.
 17. The network of claim15 wherein said response comprises a send routing information returnrequest message.
 18. The network of claim 13 wherein said networkentities comprise home location registers, each register containing aplurality of entries, one entry per subscriber, and each entry includinglocation information pertaining to a subscriber, said locationinformation indicating a network switch to which the subscriber iscurrently registered.